Parents fully appreciate the problems and frustrations of traveling with children, especially toddlers the fall within the age range of one to four years old. Often, parents will place toys, amusement devices and other preoccupying objects in the hands of the child or in easy reach of the child. However, experience tells us that it is just a matter of time before these toys and other amusement devices have fallen into the floorboard area of the vehicle or outside the reach of the child. Obviously what follows is an unhappy child.
The basic problem of attempting to preoccupy a child on long trips has been addressed, but only to a very limited extent. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,540,219 discloses an infant's automobile safety seat that is provided with a cover of sheet material for wrapping around the shield of the seat. The cover is provided with means for releaseably attaching items to the cover. While this design does attempt to secure stuffed animals and other characters to the shield, it has significant restrictions. First, only a small number of items can be secured. Further, once secured, the items are relatively fixed and cannot be moved back and forth without actually disconnecting the stuffed animals from the shield.
Therefore, there has been and continues to be a need for a device that is adapted to be suspended within a vehicle and which acts to hold and secure toys and other amusement devices in easy reach of a child that may be secured within a vehicle child safety seat.